NBA

Kirilenko bonding with new coach Hollins on South Africa trip

Not only is Andrei Kirilenko getting a chance to help people this week, he’s getting to know his new coach.

Kirilenko is in South Africa working with the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders program alongside Lionel Hollins, whom he had already grown to respect after watching from afar the job Hollins did turning the Grizzlies into a Western Conference power.

“[Hollins] really built up a great system with the Grizzlies,” Kirilenko said on the phone from Johannesburg. “He has a lot of guys who were veterans and he mixed it up with the younger guys, so he knows how to work in a different kind of situation, and his teams are all very defensive-oriented, which I like a lot.

“But he’s just a nice person. He’s a nice person to talk to, and he knows a lot of wise knowledge, so we’re having a great time here.”

Hollins replaced Jason Kidd, who had been Kirilenko’s coach during his initial season in Brooklyn. After Kidd went to Milwaukee to coach the Bucks in early July, parting with the Nets under less than flattering circumstances, Kirilenko gave an interview to a Russian news outlet that seemed critical of Kidd.

Kirilenko said he meant what he said in the interview — the choice quote: “The pressure is huge [in New York], and Kidd couldn’t handle it … or maybe he didn’t want to” — but clarified he wasn’t trying to criticize Kidd.

Jason KiddCharles Wenzelberg

“The only thing I ask is don’t take my opinion in a negative way,” he said. “That’s the only thing. I don’t have any bad feelings towards Jason.

“It’s just my opinion is that the reality is New York is tough for a young coach, because there’s so much pressure, and it’s way easier to do it in Milwaukee where you have a new team with young guys and you can build it right from the start. You can bring whatever ideas you want, which you can’t do with a more veteran team.

“I don’t have any problem with Jason. I just think the situation around it creates a little bit more buzz than there actually is.”

Before last season, Kirilenko said he hadn’t picked up a basketball all summer – the first time that ever had happened because of his decision to retire from the Russian national team. He went on to have issues with back spasms during training camp and the first two months of the season, missing 25 of the first 29 games.

He said this summer he began working out on Aug. 1, which he hopes will lead to him being healthier heading into next season.

“[Starting then] will give me about three months before the first official game,” he said. “Every season I pretty much have the same agenda, the way I’m working out, the way I’m preparing myself for the season, so it won’t be changed this season.”

Kirilenko relishes the chance to give back through Basketball Without Borders after he grew up going to hoops camps in Russia. So when the opportunity to return the favor has presented itself, Kirilenko is always quick to accept, as was the case this summer in South Africa.

“This is a unique opportunity to share some knowledge and share some experience, because 20 years ago I was in their spot,” said Kirilenko, who has previously worked with BWB camps in Moscow and Treviso, Italy. “I remember being in Russia and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was leading a camp and everybody being amazed … after 20 years I get to tell these kids about my life experience, and that means a lot.

“As a kid, when you have a chance to see an NBA legend or a player that you admire, a player that you always see on TV and they are right in front of you and you can touch them, they’re showing you what they can do. It’s right in front of your eyes. It’s just a huge opportunity for the kids, just like it was when I was a kid.”